In connecting a connector to a board of an electric apparatus, the connector is often soldered to the board in a process different from those of the other components on the board. For this reason, in the process of connecting the connector to the board of the electric apparatus, employment of a connecting unit not using soldering may improve the workability.
Conventional techniques for connecting the terminal of the connector to the board without the use of the soldering include a technique using a metallic resilient terminal, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. The terminal is composed of a press-fit terminal in which a connection is carried out by insertion into a through hole of a board.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a connector that is attached to a terminal holder of a connector housing located on a board by a terminal of the connector being passed through the terminal holder, and the terminal on the board side of the connector is resiliently pressed against an electrode face located on the board, thus enhancing stability of electrical connections therebetween.
A connection terminal for a printed board disclosed in Patent Document 3 includes a terminal for establishing a connection between a tab terminal and the printed board, and has an electrode connecting section which is electrically connected to an electrode face located on the printed board by being resiliently pressed against the electrode face.
Patent Document 4 discloses a connector to be connected to a through hole of a board, such that by insertion into the through hole of the board, an insertion section provided at the terminal is resiliently fitted and fixed therein.
Further, Patent Document 5 discloses a press-fit terminal device in which to a press-fit terminal that is inserted in a through hole of a board and connected thereto, an arm that comes in contact with an electrode face on the board to be electrically connected to the electrode face is provided.
In the above-discussed conventional techniques, in electrically connecting a connector terminal to an electrode face provided on a board by pressing the terminal against the electrode face, the following is generally employed: one is a method of contacting a connector terminal to a copper surface of an electrode by breaking a rust preventive flux layer provided over the electrode surface by a strong force like press fit, or the other is a measure for retarding the oxidation of an contacting electrode surface of a board in order to prevent contact failures thereof.
On the other hand, an electrode on a board is sometimes positively used as a connector terminal by preventing the contact face of the electrode from being oxidized by coating the contact face of the board with gold plating, nickel platting, tin plating, or the like; in this case, a board processing by a plating process that is different from usual board manufacturing processes must be added thereto.
Note that in this case, the influence of the potential gradient between the metals cannot be disregarded. Therefore, there are a large number of examples such that in order to retard corrosion or oxidation caused by electrolytic corrosion to thereby prevent contact failures, a metal on the surface of a connector making face-to-face contacts with the electrode of a board is the same as that used for the electrode thereof, thus securing reliability of connector connection.
Moreover, it is necessary to add a process of removing flux and oil for soldering from the contact portion of a board to a board manufacturing process so that flux and oil do not adhere to the contact portion thereof, and further upgrade the manufacturing process so that foreign matters do not adhere thereto. This is a factor which increases the cost of components.
Such an increase of the number of manufacturing processes results in an increase of the difficulty of producing boards and connectors, thus also making inevitable an increase of manufacturing costs thereof.